Promises
by vcawarrior15
Summary: She only wanted to know, but the idea could destroy everything. One-shot


An 18 year old Isabella sat in her room, crying her eyes out. She knows why she did it, but she didn't know why she went through with it. She didn't have to do it, she thought it would help, but when he saw it, it just seemed to make things worse. After he saw her with him, he had to turn his head to avoid her gaze, and that just broke her heart. She had been working so hard for all of these years to get him, and yet this last idea was the worst one she had ever done. A knock on her door caused the tears to stop flowing for a few minutes. "Who is it?"

"Isa, there's someone who wants to see you." Isabella's mom called from the other side of the door.

"Okay, the doors unlocked." Isabella sat up in her bed, pulling knees to her chest to at least to try and not look completely crazy.

The door opened and the one person Isabella didn't want to see at that moment walked through the door. As she as she saw him, she had to turn her head to avoid crying hysterically. "Hey Phineas."

"Hey Isabella." was the quick reply. Phineas sat his backpack on the floor, walked over and sat on the bed next to Isabella. For what seemed like the longest time, they just sat there in silence, Phineas looking at his feet and Isabella at the wall opposite Phineas. "Why?" Phineas questioned, breaking the silence.

Isabella started to tear up again, not wanting to face the guy she had hurt. The memory of that day began to go through her mind.

_The school day was just about to end. The seniors had permission to leave to get to their cars before school would break for the day. Isabella was waiting in front of the school underneath one of the large trees on the property. To anyone passing by, she would have seemed as happy as ever; in the top five of the class, already been accepted to college with a full ride for playing soccer, no longer only the head of the Fireside Girls Troop 46321, but now was head over many other troops. The position in fact was created by just for Isabella. But on the inside, she was anything but. With the senior year about to end she was sure that the chances that she would have Phineas as hers seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. Sure they were going to the same college, but she didn't think that she had a chance with all of the other girls on campus. Sure, her and Phineas had been a couple on and off since about Christmas break of their sophomore year, but they had never really been what she wanted, Phineas wanted to get through college before considering marrying someone. _

_She stood underneath that tree, trying to think up any idea that would make sure her and Phineas would be together during college. She wasn't going to do anything stupid, other girls might have tried and sleep with their boyfriends to try and get them to stay with them, but she wasn't that dumb and Phineas wasn't going to help out with that idea either. They had promised that they were going to wait, no matter who it was with. None of the other ideas that she had ever worked, she had tried them all. But there was one idea that she had never attempted only because it could destroy everything between the two of them. _

_As she continued to toss the idea around in her head, Ferb came out from the school and joined Isabella underneath the tree. "Hey Isabella, how was your day?" Ferb asked, causing Isabella to snap back to reality._

"_Oh, hey Ferb, my day was fine. How'd you do on that Physics test?"_

"_Oh, got an 'A', no big deal. Are you okay, you seem kind of upset?"_

"_I'm fine; I just have a lot on my mind, with graduation, college, finding a replacement for me on the Fireside Girls Cabinet…"_

"_Isabella, I know that's not true." Ferb interrupted. "You got accepted to college three weeks ago, you don't have to give a speech at the graduation ceremony, and you picked out replacement possibilities for Ms. Fyreside to choose from a month ago. What is really bothering you?"_

_Isabella sighed, she knew that if she could talk to anyone about Phineas, it was his brother. "I'm just worried that I'm going to lose Phineas when we go off to college."_

_Ferb chuckled, "Is that what you're worried about? Listen, I know Phineas better than anyone else, and the only thing you have to fear is if he somehow loses his memory of you. Besides his immediate family, you are the person that he cares the most about. My guess is that when you first get moved onto campus, you two will be together."_

_Isabella was not completely satisfied. "I don't know about that. I just want to get some sign from him, no matter how I get it."_

"_And do you propose to do that?" questioned Ferb._

_At that same moment, Phineas emerged from the school and spotted his companions underneath the tree. Isabella knew this may be the last chance to use her last ditch idea to make sure that Phineas and she would be a couple. Making sure Phineas was watching, she quickly leaned in gave Ferb a kiss. Phineas stopped mid stride, shocked at what he was witnessing. Ferb was just as surprised, he didn't understand what was happening. Isabella broke the kiss, and looked over at Phineas, but the look on his face caused her to turn and run as hard as she could. She could easily make it to her house before the boys could pull out of the school parking lot. Phineas continued walking met up with his brother under the tree._

"_What was that all about? Why did you kiss her?" Phineas asked, getting more hurt and angry by the second. _

_Ferb attempted to keep Phineas level headed. "I don't know, why don't you ask her? All I was doing was talking to her and all of a sudden she leaned in and planted one on me."_

"_Well, why didn't you stop her? You know that she's my girlfriend."_

"_Don't get angry at me, or for that matter, just calm down. When she gave me that kiss, I was so shocked at what happened that all I could think of is 'what the crap is going on.' _

_Phineas calmed down, he wasn't angry anymore, but he was still upset. The brothers started walking to their car, silence being exchanged between the two of them. As they got in the car and quickly got on the main road out from the school, Ferb spoke up. "I think you should go talk to Isabella."_

_Phineas turned his head toward his brother. "Talk to her? Right now that is the last thing that I want to do."_

_Ferb pulled the car into the Mr. Slushy Burger parking lot, and parked the car. "Phineas, what is the problem, you've been hurt by some other girls like this before but I've never seen you this upset. Come clean, what is the big deal?"_

_Phineas stared straight at the dashboard, mulling over his own thoughts. "It's just that, *sigh*, I thought she was different. Through all the years, she was my best friend. When were dating she wasn't like all the other girls, whether trying to sleep with every guy they were with or were not worth the air they breathed. She was always true to herself and that was why I liked her so much. So then when I see the one girl that I actually love kissing not only another guy but my brother of all people, the betrayal goes so much deeper." A single tear slid down Phineas' nose and fell into his lap._

_Ferb put the car in reverse and pulled the car out of the parking lot and continued on the drive back home. "Listen, I would never willingly betray you. This thing that is happening between you and Isabella is just that, between you and Isabella. I really hope that you can forgive me though."_

"_Of course I'll forgive you. You're my brother and couldn't stay mad at you for long."_

_Ferb smiled, "Good, now I'm going to suggest it again, I think you need to go and talk to Isabella. Before she kissed me, she was really concerned about your relationship with her." Phineas nodded in agreement, so Ferb dropped Phineas off in front of the Garcia-Shapiro household._

Phineas turned from looking at the floor toward the girl across the street. "Why?"

"Because I'm afraid," Isabella spat out. This quick outburst made Phineas jerk, he really wasn't expecting that.

"What?"

"I was afraid that…" Isabella couldn't seem to find a complete thought. To her she thought she sounded like a complete idiot, on top of that a little selfish and creepy.

"Isabella, please just spit it out. I don't care anymore; I just want to hear it from you, why did you do that?" Phineas pleaded.

Isabella took a deep breath to calm her nerves. "Phineas, you know since we were little, I've always liked you."

Phineas smiled at the memory; the time he found out that Isabella liked him. It was just a non-committal, friendly question that he asked a couple of years ago. After their project disappeared like normal, Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella were sitting underneath the large tree in the backyard. The topic of conversation during the construction was about the people that everyone had crushes on. Since, for some of the people, the topic was kind of touchy, so before either Isabella or Phineas could be asked who they liked, the topic was changed. Still Phineas' mind drifted back to the question, and to start some kind of conversation, and since he already knew who Ferb liked, he asked Isabella who she liked. Isabella stumbled on the answer and when Ferb heard the question, he took his book and went inside, leaving Phineas and Isabella together. Eventually, Isabella finally spit out that she liked Phineas, which was not only a surprise to Phineas, but a surprise that he was actually happy about.

That moment was a good memory shared between the two of them, which could not be said for the moment at hand. Isabella continued her explanation. "Once we started dating those few years ago, I was just so happy that we were together that I couldn't ever see you not with me. Then when we did break up, it was hard, but for some reason, I got over it easier. Maybe it was because we eventually got back together later on, so it may it less painful, I don't know. But when we started applying to colleges, those memories from when we were younger, the ones of you not noticing my advances or seeing them as a friendly gesture came back to my memory. They got me thinking about how I might be able to stack up against all of those girls on campus."

Phineas, realizing, were this was heading, grabbed a hold of Isabella's hand, and held it tight.

"The more I thought about it, the less appealing I thought I was. I thought that after we got on campus that I would end up as just another face in the crowd. I didn't want to lose you, so I attempted the only thing that I never tried to see if you liked me. I thought if I could see what your reaction would be to me kissing your brother that I would be able to tell if you would stay with me, even if it was only the girl that you've known forever." Isabella looked from down at her feet to her lifelong crush, hoping that he would at least not hate her forever. To her surprise, she was greeted with a warm smile.

"Isabella," Phineas began, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb, "that may be the most convoluted, hare-brained scheme that I have ever heard of."

"Well, you really know how to make a girl feel better." Isabella replied sarcastically.

Phineas ignored the comment. "But the fact that you even think that I would ever forget about you hurts me more than even if you were dating my brother behind my back." Isabella was shocked at the comment, and was almost eager to hear what else Phineas had to say. "I know it has taken me a long time to get around to you, but don't you think that after all of these years that you would never, ever be just another face in the crowd? I care about more than anyone else in the world."

Phineas lifted Isabella's hand and gave it a kiss before going over to his backpack and pulling out a small box. "I made these a few days ago, and I've been waiting for an occasion to give it to you, and I'm pretty sure that this is a good moment." Phineas opened the box and nestled inside were two silver rings, one larger and one smaller. Phineas pulled the larger one out and held it out in his hand. "These rings I made as symbols to keep promises. My promise is that I will never forget you Isabella, and I pray that you can wait just a little bit longer. Someday I'll turn these silver bands into golden ones." Phineas smiled as he slid the ring onto his finger.

Slowly losing her ability to restrain her tears, Isabella took the smaller ring and held it out in view. "If going to promise that, then my promise that I will never again that I will match up to any other girl's standards and that I will wait on you as long as it takes. After all I waited, like six years for you the first time." The comment caused them both to laugh as Isabella put the ring on her finger.

The teens stared at each other for the longest time, now content to just be with each other. Pinky came into the room, causing Isabella to break the stare, and acknowledge her pet. "Oh, there you are Pinky."

Phineas stood from his spot on the bed, picked up his bag, and was getting set to go home.

"Where are you going?" Isabella asked.

"Well, even though I will probably be co-reading the Salutatorian speech with Ferb, I would like to still do well on my finals." Phineas replied.

Isabella got up from her bed, walked over and wrapped her arms around Phineas' neck. "Did you really mean it, those promises?"

"Every word of it," Phineas answered confidently.

Isabella was satisfied with the answer and pulled Phineas into a tight embrace. Phineas returned the embrace and kissed Isabella on the forehead. This moment of the two of them together was their grandchildren's favorite story to hear.


End file.
